State Teacher of the Year and former Bridgeport Central band director John Mastroianni performs Take the A Train on the saxophone during a luncheon at the Holiday Inn in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, March 26, 2014.

State Teacher of the Year and former Bridgeport Central band director John Mastroianni, left, laughs with Principal Tania Kelley during a visit to Roosevelt School in Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday, March 26, 2014.

BRIDGEPORT -- It's not so much what Connecticut Teacher of the Year John Mastroianni shares when he visits classrooms around the state. It's what he learns.

On Wednesday, in the city where he grew up and began his career as a music teacher, Mastroianni said he learned a lot.

At Roosevelt School -- dedicated to improving student performance through the arts -- he saw how singing is used to help second-graders remember weather-related vocabulary words.

Across town in a Wilbur Cross classroom, he witnessed the resourcefulness of a music teacher who gives her students a heavy dose of self-respect and discipline along with C, D and E notes.

He also discovered, much to his dismay, that the choir and band program in the district high schools, where he once taught, have been gutted.

The school district doesn't even have a music supervisor anymore.

"I am a product of this place. I wouldn't be here if it was not for Bridgeport schools and the arts," said Mastroianni.

Named last October as the state's 2014 Teacher of the Year, Mastroianni called the experience life-changing. He has been a musician since he was 15 and has been teaching 32 years.

He was invited home by Marge Hiller, director of the Bridgeport Public Education Fund. He said he stayed overnight with his parents, who still live in Bridgeport, and brought along his saxophone, which he played at a noon luncheon Wednesday and later at a teacher workshop.

His message was how art can nourish the soul.

"Stick to your guns," he told district music teachers at a professional development session he led at the Aquaculture Center. "If you don't have a balanced education diet, you run the risk of ill educational health."

Mastroianni also joked that he knew he was preaching to the choir -- almost literally.

That the district's 52 music teachers no longer have a supervisor is disheartening, Mastroianni said, but there are ways they can help each other until the district finds the funds to put one back.

For one, they have music teachers like Fran Russell at Wilbur Cross, who not only mentors new teachers, but regularly holds gatherings for music teachers to build camaraderie and exchange information. She urges structure and consistency, and tries to make eye contact with each of her students every day. It helps in judging their mood, she said.

More Information

Who: John MastroianniWhat: 2014 Connecticut Teacher of the YearWhere: Teaches music at Hall High School in West Hartford; teaches part time at the University of Connecticut.Hometown: Bridgeport.Schooling: Central High School Class of 1978; a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Bridgeport, and an master's in jazz performance/composition from New York University. Specialties: saxophone, woodwind doubler, composer and arranger.Who he's played with: Smokey Robinson, the Glenn Miller Band, Sonny Costanzo, Johnny Mathis, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Donna Summer, Tony Bennett and Barry Manilow.Making music: Mastroianni has his own quartet and leads a 16-piece jazz orchestra.

"My favorite thing to do is talk with colleagues about stuff we do," said Mastroianni. "Look at how the teachers at Roosevelt and Marin had kids in the palms of their hands."

After watching how geometry concepts were slipped into a kindergarten 3-D art project, Mastroianni introduced himself to the class.

"Yes," Mastroianni said. "In college they make you learn all instruments, but I don't play anymore."

At Cross, after watching Russell lead third-graders through a lesson on xylophone, Mastroianni asked her if standardized tests in math and reading affect music teacher evaluations.

No, said Russell, but she said she's incorporated writing and math into her instruction for years.

If traveling the state has taught him anything, Mastroianni said, it's that a great number of good veteran teachers are disheartened by the paperwork and data collection involved with the new evaluation system. Many are talking about early retirement.

Now, as Teacher of the Year, Mastroianni has the ear of the commissioner of education, who he will meet with four times a year to drive home the need for the arts.

In May, he will share the same message with President Barack Obama when he goes to the White House.